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Michigan Union Fight Ends Requirement for Workers to Pay Dues

The fiscal cliff is dominating the news headlines, with a complicit, elite media obsessed with the notion that taxing the rich is the solution. On Tuesday, however, a familiar fight with union thugs came to an end in Michigan, where state legislators voted to make the state right to work. The result ends the requirement that workers pay union dues as a condition of their employment. This has a far-reaching impact, as unions contribute billions of dollars to Democrats.

While Washington obsesses about the "fiscal cliff," there are potentially more consequential events taking place far from the halls of Congress. In a move that rivals and perhaps surpasses the decision to limit organized labor's collective bargaining powers in Wisconsin, Republican lawmakers in Michigan are expected to pass final legislation Tuesday to end the requirement that workers pay union dues or fees as a condition of their employment.

If the GOP succeeds, Michigan, home of the nation's heavily unionized auto industry, will become the 24th right-to-work state in the country -- a development that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

Republicans say the move would not only give current workers the freedom to choose whether to join a union and pay dues but would, more importantly, bring many, many new jobs to Michigan. Rep. Gov. Rick Snyder, who supports the bill, points out that Indiana enacted (after a long and bitter fight) the same kind of law earlier this year. "We've carefully watched what's gone on in Indiana since they passed similar legislation back in February," Snyder told Fox News' Greta van Susteren last week, "and they've seen a significant increase in the number of companies talking about [bringing] thousands of jobs to their state."

Of course, the move is not just economic. It's political, too. Democrats depend on millions -- actually, billions -- of dollars in support from the forced dues of union members. If that money supply were to dry up, or even just decrease, the Democratic Party would be in serious trouble.

Which is why President Obama just happened to discuss the situation during his campaign-style visit to the Daimler Detroit Diesel Plant in Redford, Mich., on Monday. "These so-called right-to-work laws don't have anything to do with economics -- they have everything to do with politics," Obama said. "What they're really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money."

Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Committee, which supports the move, says that from the president's perspective, the fight does indeed have everything to do with politics. "President Obama was the recipient of literally hundreds of millions of dollars from union officials," Mix says. "If union officials can't compel union workers to pay dues as a condition of their employment, the fees that they use for political activity would dry up very quickly."

Michigan Democrats are alternately threatening and begging Snyder to give up. Democratic Rep. Sander Levin not-very-subtly promised "endless controversy and strife," and protesters have been gearing up around the state since the GOP first took action last week.

Democrats will shuttle in their thugs in from all over the country. Work will become an afterthought, as their precious strangle on public sector work is threatened. Expect violence, death threats and everything we've seen from the Democratic Party in the past on this issue. These are miscreants.

This is so important for Democrats that even Barack Husein Obama jetted to Michigan on Monday to push propaganda, smear the opposition and be the community rabble-rouser that he is. The effects of this will be deep. Democratic politicians and causes received billions of dollars from union thugs, whether their members supported them or not. With union members now not being forced to pay dues or join unions, that's extra cash in their paychecks. With the economy in ruins, a bigger paycheck is much more powerful than a useless union membership that has the sole purpose of helping Democrats and not their workers.